How Keir Starmer dragged UK’s Labour Party to the centre

We tell you how Keir Starmer dragged the Labour Party to the centre — and what that means for the party, and British politics in general.

A contrast to Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn was a polarising leader. While wildly popular among parts of the Labour base, with ambitious (and well-received) socialist policy positions, Corbyn was also never liked by more moderate voters as well as the party HQ, which found him too abrasive. Ultimately, factionalism, allegations of anti-semitism, and a disastrous showing in the 2019 general elections ended Corbyn’s time at the helm of the Labour Party.

Enter Keir Starmer. A suave former human rights lawyer, Starmer stands in stark contrast to his predecessor — whereas Corbyn was seen to be uncompromising to the point of being unrealistic, Starmer is a more sober face, agreeable to a broader base.

After taking over the reins of the party, Starmer booted out Corbyn and marginalised the party’s “ultra-left” wing, vocally criticised anti-semitism in party ranks (which Corbyn had failed to do), and softened the language of reform, all while holding on to many of Corbyn’s policy positions. His pitch is simple: to bring the Labour Party back to power by being a less divisive face, that the maximum number of people can rally behind.

Hearkening back to the Blair playbook

Many have pointed to the similarities between Starmer and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the mid-1990s, led the Labour Party’s revival by departing from the party’s socialist roots.

A self-proclaimed pragmatist, Blair occupied 10 Downing Street from 1997 to 2007, following 18 years of Conservative rule prior to that. While he was one of Britain’s most popular prime ministers ever in his early years, he went out as one of its least popular, primarily on the back of his support for the Iraq War. This meant that Blair remained ignored, even maligned, within his own party, with leaders who followed him (especially leftists Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn) unwilling to touch him with a barge pole. Not Starmer, though.

Where the left within the party saw Blair’s New Labour as a fundamental abandonment of the working classes, Starmer sees a winning formula, the most successful one in Labour’s recent history. As political analyst John Crace wrote in The Guardian: “Both understand that the key to success is not expecting the electorate to come closer to you. It’s getting the party closer to the electorate. Even if a few principles get trashed along the way.”

Tony Blair moved the Labour Party to the centre and subsequently led the party to 13 years in power (including 3 years under Gordon Brown). Now Starmer is doing the same, and he — and the Labour Party — seem to be poised to be in power once again.

A difficult balancing act

Starmer is playing a delicate balancing act. While his centrist pitch might lead him to victory in the polls, many within his party wonder just how ‘Labour’ a Starmer prime ministership will actually be.

“Our Labour era will instead unleash the “big build”,” Starmer said in his speech during the annual Labour Party conference, adding at the same time that “fiscal responsibility is non-negotiable.” His critics on the left say that if push comes to shove, Starmer will abandon principled positions in favour of Blairite pragmatism.

Take for instance his (infamous) 10 pledges, made during his campaign to be Labour Party leader. These included promises to hike income tax and nationalise multiple public services including rail, energy and water. Many of the pledges have since been rolled back, or abandoned altogether.

A more recent example has been his statements regarding the escalation in Palestine. The Labour Party has historically advocated a free State of Palestine. While Starmer did repeat this line in his annual party conference speech, his statement was bookended by support for Israel’s right to “defend itself” and condemnation of Hamas as terrorists. His lack of moral clarity on the issue was criticised, with some rank and file Labour members leaving the party in disgust.

Keir Starmer will inherit a country undergoing economic and social turmoil. His centrist pitch, along with Conservative incompetence, may have made him favourite to win power. The real challenge will come afterwards. As he faces crisis upon crisis, the thing to look out for will be this: Will he manage to continue his balancing act? And if not, on which side of the political spectrum will he fall?